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A police officer who gave some much-needed help instead of a ticket makes this week's list of inspiring stories:

Instead of a Ticket, Speeder Got a Favor: A University of Wisconsin-Stout student got pulled over for speeding, but when he explained to the police officer exactly why he was running late for a presentation, he ended up getting a very cool favor instead of a ticket—and a 92% on that presentation.

With $1.5M, the 'Schindler' of Canada Has Saved 200: The quote near the top of the story is this: "I didn't want to be 80 years old and know that I did nothing during the greatest humanitarian crisis of my time." It's from Jim Estill, CEO of the Danby appliance company in Guelph, Ontario, and it goes a long way toward explaining why the headline at Toronto Life refers to him as the "Oskar Schindler of Guelph." The humanitarian crisis he's referring to is the plight of ordinary citizens in Syria, and what he's done is amazing.

3-Year-Old Boy Celebrates Adoption in Viral Photos: A 3-year-old Arizona boy was "super-shy" when first placed in a foster home in early 2015 but has since opened up and bonded with the family that adopted him Tuesday. He fist-pumps in awesome photos from that day that have since gone viral.

After 14 Years of Playing 66513, They Won World's Biggest Lottery: There was much celebration in Madrid Thursday after all the tickets with the top prize-winning number in Spain's $2.4 billion Christmas lottery were sold in one city neighborhood. Many of the winning tickets were bought by workers and residents at the neighborhood's Penuelas retirees' home, where staff members have been buying the same ticket number for 14 years. One winner has a particularly touching story.

Here's What to Do With All Those Empty Gift Boxes: For the record number of Americans buying their holiday gifts online this year, here's an idea of how to dispose of all those cardboard boxes. Give Back Box has partnered up with companies to encourage you to refill them with clothes, housewares, or whatever else you'd like to donate to Goodwill (excluding electronics), and the program will pay to have the boxes shipped to the charity. The program isn't new, but there's a big reason it's getting attention this year.